Over:board – Turning a Raspberry Pi into a Mini ITX motherboard

The Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 is a board that gives the embedded community a lot of options. The Over:Board  Mini-ITX motherboard for the module will allow users to turn the device into a fully-fledged PC. 

The Over:Board is currently seeking funding via IndieGoGo, intending to create Mini-ITX motherboards for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 for as little as £99. These boards will include a full-length PCI-Express slot, a SATA connection, dual HDMI ports, Gigabit Ethernet and plenty of other connectivity options. 

Like all Mini-ITX motherboards, the Overboard measures in at 170 x170mm and features a 24-pin ATX power connector to make the device usable with today’s PC-grade power supplies. The board’s full-length PCIe power will allow the board to connect to full-sized PCIe devices, though this connection will be limited to PCIe 2.0 1x speeds due to the limitations of the Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module’s internal hardware. 

The creator of the Over:Board, Ross Nicholls, hopes to raise £5,000 through IndieGoGo to fund the development of the Over:Board. This will involve the creation of prototype boards, pre-production and final production board designs. Remember that funding this project does not guarantee that you will receive a product, pledges will support the product’s development in the hopes that the product can be made real. Fund this project at your own risk.  

Right now, the Over:Board is in its design phase. No Over:Board designs have been manufactured or tested at this time. Should everything go as expected with this project, prototype boards will be manufactured this March and production boards will be manufactured in September 2021. 

More information about the Over:Board for the Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module is available at IndieGoGo.